Psychological factors promote the habituation effect on social workers' posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms after repeated COVID-19 outbreaks.

OBJECTIVE: The present study investigates whether psychological factors influence the habituation or sensitization effect during repeated COVID-19 outbreaks. METHOD: A total of 838 social workers from districts affected by different waves of COVID-19 outbreaks (two waves, n = 387; one wave, n = 177; zero waves, n = 274) reported their posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, psychological security, emotional regulation, resilience, spiritual health, and social support (December 2021). RESULTS: The rate of PTSD among social workers stands at 34% (cutoff point 38). Social workers developed a habituation response amid the ongoing pandemic, with individuals who encountered a higher number of COVID-19 outbreaks exhibiting fewer symptoms of PTSD (F = 3.04, p < .05, η² = 0.007). Social workers who experienced two outbreaks had significantly lower PTSD symptoms than those who did not experience any (p = .018, 95% CI [0.431, 4.635]). A bootstrapped multiple mediation analysis indicates that psychological security (indirect effect: ß = -0.590, 95% CI [-0.989, -0.192]) and emotional regulation (indirect effect: ß = -0.474, 95% CI [-0.899, -0.069]) completely mediate the association between outbreaks of COVID-19 and PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of PTSD symptoms was high in social workers. Chinese social workers underwent a habituation effect after repeated outbreaks of COVID-19. Improving psychological security and emotional regulation can reduce PTSD symptoms due to the repeated outbreak of COVID-19 among the public. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Pharmacotherapy and cognitive bias modification for the treatment of anxiety disorders.

INTRODUCTION: Anxiety disorders are characterized by widespread and persistent anxiety or recurrent panic attacks. As a result of their high prevalence, chronicity, and comorbidity, patients' quality of life and functioning are severely compromised. However, several patients do not receive treatment. AREAS COVERED: This review discusses the effectiveness, safety, and limitations of major medications and cognitive bias modification (CBM) for treating anxiety disorders. The possibility of combined treatment is also discussed in the literature. Furthermore, drawing on Chinese cultural perspectives, the authors suggest that anxiety can be recognized, measured, and coped with at three levels of skill (), vision (), and Tao (). EXPERT OPINION: The combination of pharmacotherapy and CBM is possibly more effective in treating anxiety disorders than either treatment alone. However, clinicians and patients should participate in the joint decision-making process and consider comprehensive factors. Moderate anxiety has adaptive significance. In the coming years, by combining the downward analytical system of western culture with the upward integrative system of Chinese culture, a comprehensive understanding of anxiety and anxiety disorders should be established, rather than focusing only on their treatment.

Loneliness among older Chinese individuals: the status quo and relationships with activity-related factors.

BACKGROUND: With the rapid population aging, healthy aging has become a concern for society as a whole. In this study, loneliness and its relationships with activity-related individual factors were examined among older Chinese individuals from the perspective of mental health and daily leisure activities. METHODS: The data were from the fourth investigation of the Sample Survey of the Aged Population in Urban and Rural China, which had a total of 220,506 participants. Activity ability was assessed by the Barthel Activity of Daily Living Index, a self-designed activity type questionnaire was used to evaluate activity participation, and loneliness was measured with a single-item question. RESULTS: The prevalence of varying degrees of loneliness among Chinese older individuals was 36.6%. The prevalence of loneliness among the older individuals differed significantly by age gender, age, physical health status, annual household income, education level, marital status, living status, ethnic minority status, religious faith and territory of residence. There were differences in activity participation among older Chinese adults in terms of all the demographic factors mentioned above, while there were no significant differences in living status or religious faith, and significant differences in several other demographic factors in terms of activity ability. Self-care ability, as a form of activity ability, and activity participation significantly predicted loneliness among the older participants. CONCLUSION: The topic of loneliness among Chinese older individuals is complex and requires greater attention. The buffering effect of activity-related factors on loneliness suggests that old people should improve their activity ability and participate more in daily activities.

(In)Congruence in Perceived Mother-child Cohesion and Informants' Depressive Symptoms: A Dyadic Response Surface Analysis.

Mother-child cohesion, reflecting the emotional connection between mothers and children, is a protective factor for individuals' mental health. The Modified Operations Triad Model suggests that children and mothers hold either congruent or incongruent views of their perceived cohesion, which reflects family functioning and is an indication of future mental health outcomes for family members. Despite increasing research on the impact of (in)congruence in perceived family functioning on children's mental health, few studies concurrently address the mental health of both mothers and children, overlooking their interdependence. This longitudinal study with multi-informant reports explored the long-term and developmental effects of (in)congruence in perceived mother-child cohesion on informants' depressive symptoms. A total of 577 families participated at the first time point, comprising 577 children (52.34% girls, Mage = 10.11 years) and 577 mothers (Mage = 37.32 years). The Dyadic Response Surface Analysis revealed that mother-child congruence at high levels of cohesion (versus low levels) predicted fewer depressive symptoms in mothers and children after three and nine months, as well as decreased depressive symptoms over nine months. Children who reported higher levels of cohesion than their mothers experienced fewer depressive symptoms after three months. Mothers with higher levels of cohesion than their children reported fewer depressive symptoms after three months. The current findings emphasize the importance of identifying and resolving discrepancies in perceived mother-child cohesion between mothers and children to promote a healthy family environment.

Physical activity, physical frailty and depressive symptoms among Chinese male and female older adults: do different indicators make a difference?

Objectives: Older adults become more inactive and frailer with aging. Physical status is closely linked to mental health, but it is unclear which physical indicator is more strongly associated with depressive symptoms in older adults. The present study aimed to compare relationships between self-reported physical activity, physical frailty (muscle mass, muscle strength, and gait ability) and depressive symptoms in community male and female older adults. Methods: A total of 1,180 adults aged 60 years and older were recruited to participate in this study from a Chinese community receiving annual check-up service from September 2018 to May 2019. Physical activity was assessed by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The Bio-electrical Impedance Analyzer was used to determine the muscle mass. As the indicators of muscle function, grip strength and gait ability were assessed by the dynamometer and Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT), respectively. The 15-item version of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) was used to examine depressive symptoms. Demographic variables, health status and sleep quality were collected using questionnaire. Results: 11.8% men and 11.9% women reported depressive symptoms. Logistic regression showed that depressive symptoms was associated with low grip strength (OR = 2.42, 95% CI: 1.04-5.63), slow gait ability (OR = 3.60, 95% CI: 1.28-10.13) in older males, and associated with low level of self-reported physical activity (OR = 3.85, 95% CI: 2.00-7.42) in older females. No significant association was found between muscle mass and depressive symptoms. Conclusion: There were gender differences in the relationship between physical activity, physical frailty, and depressive symptoms. Grip strength and gait ability may be a better indicator of frailty for predicting depressive symptoms in older men while physical activity may be useful in predicting depressive symptoms in older women.

Corrigendum: Age-related differences in affective norms for Chinese words (AANC).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.585666.].

An efficiently working brain characterizes higher mental flow that elicits pleasure in Chinese calligraphic handwriting.

The mental flow that commonly emerges during immersion in artistic activities is beneficial for maintaining mental health. However, there is not that much converging neurobiological evidence about how flow emerges and elicits pleasure in arts. Using an imitation task of Chinese calligraphic handwriting with self-rated subjective flow experience, we investigated the neural interactions supporting flow. Our results show that calligraphic handwriting requires cooperation between widespread multimodal regions that span the visual and sensorimotor areas along the dorsal stream, the top-down attentional control system, and the orbito-affective network. We demonstrate that higher flow is characterized by an efficiently working brain that manifests as less activation particularly in the brain regions within dorsal attention network and functional connectivity between visual and sensorimotor networks in calligraphy. Furthermore, we also propose that pleasure during calligraphy writing arises from efficient cortical activity in the emergence of flow, and the orbito-caudate circuit responsible for feelings of affection. These findings provide new insight into the neuropsychological representations of flow through art, and highlight the potential benefits of artistic activities to boost well-being and prosperity.

Cortical thickness of the left parahippocampal cortex links central hearing and cognitive performance in aging.

Hearing impairment is considered a leading modifiable risk factor of cognitive decline and dementia. While most evidence has been established on clinical assessment of peripheral hearing loss, understanding of how central hearing in real-world conditions is associated with cognitive aging is limited. This study analyzed the data of 473 unrelated healthy adults aged 36-100 years old from the Lifespan Human Connectome Project in Aging. Central hearing was evaluated using the Words-in-Noise decibel threshold. Cognitive functions were evaluated by the performance on cognitive tests, and cortical thickness was estimated from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Here, we show that a higher hearing threshold was associated with a lower performance on immediate and delayed episodic memory retrieval, switching aspect of executive function, working memory, reading decoding, and vocabulary comprehension. Cortical thickness in the left parahippocampal cortex (lPHC) was negatively associated with the hearing threshold and acted as a significant partial mediator in the association of central hearing with immediate recall, switching, reading decoding, and vocabulary comprehension. These findings suggest that cortical thickness in the lPHC, an early target of dementia, partially links central hearing and performance in multiple cognitive domains in aging.

The Trajectory of Anthropomorphism and Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Serial Mediation Model.

Anthropomorphism of nature can promote pro-environmental behavior (PEB). However, its underlying mechanism and these age-related changes are unclear. We propose that connectedness to nature and environmental guilt mediate the relationship between anthropomorphism of nature and PEB. The present study tests the hypotheses based on a cross-sectional sample of 1364 residents aged 15-76 years, using structural equation modeling. We found that: (1) environmental guilt decreases, but PEB increases, with age; (2) anthropomorphism of nature decreases in early adulthood and increases in old age; (3) connectedness to nature decreases in mid-late adolescence and increases in early adulthood. Connectedness to nature and environmental guilt have a serial mediating effect in the relationship between anthropomorphism of nature and PEB, with cross-age stability. These findings contribute to enriching the understanding of PEB from the human and nature perspective, and enhancing anthropomorphism of nature that could promote PEB in residents at different ages, through connectedness to nature and environmental guilt.

Age-related positivity effect of emotional attention: time and frequency domain.

Compared with their younger counterparts, older adults are inclined to allocate more attentional resources to positive over negative materials. This age-related positivity effect has been reported in various experimental paradigms; however, studies have not investigated the attention stage at which it appears or its potential neural mechanism. Thus, we investigated the time and frequency domain dynamics of younger and older adults during emotional attention processes. We obtained electroencephalography oscillation and event-related potential data for 20 older and 20 younger participants while they performed an emotional dot-probe task. We focused our time and frequency domain dynamics analyses on the posterior regions as a key structure for facial emotion perception and the frontal regions as a crucial structure for cognitive control. In the time domain, older adults showed an initial attentional shift to happy-related stimuli, whereas their younger counterparts did not demonstrate emotional modulation, as reflected by the N2pc component. The time-frequency decomposition was analyzed for the N2pc time window. The results showed that compared with younger adults, older adults showed an increased alpha power for happy faces in the right-posterior regions. Moreover, a parallel pattern was seen in frontal theta activity. The current findings highlight how electrocortical activity of the brain might moderate the tendency to prioritize positive information among healthy older adults. The emergence of an age-related positivity effect may be related to frontal cognitive control processing. These findings provide insight into the prevention and treatment of unsuccessful aging, such as late-life depression and anxiety.

Intergenerational support and depressive symptoms in old age: The difference between urban and rural China.

Objectives: Intergenerational support is associated with fewer depressive symptoms in old age. Uneven development has resulted in huge urban-rural disparities in China, which could lead to different intergenerational relationships. The present study aimed to examine whether intergenerational support was associated with depressive symptoms differently among urban and rural Chinese older participants. Methods: A sample of 3,498 participants from nine pairs of urban subdistricts and rural villages were included in the present study. Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and the intergenerational support mechanisms (financial, instrumental, and emotional) were assessed with a self-designed questionnaire. Results: Significant areas by support effect for depressive symptoms indicated different associations between intergenerational financial and emotional support and depressive symptoms in urban and rural areas. Specifically, urban older participants receiving emotional support from adult children and rural older participants receiving financial support from adult children showed fewer depressive symptoms. In both areas, participants receiving instrumental support showed fewer depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Our study is the first to compare the urban-rural disparity in association between intergenerational support and depressive symptoms in a developing country, China. The results support modernization theories proposing weakened economic function but intensified emotional ties in societies with higher level of development. Communication-based intergenerational emotional support should be promoted in urban areas, and formal support systems should provide financial and instrumental support to the vulnerable rural older population.

A brief review of applied psychology in China.

Psychology in China has a long past, but a rather short history. Modern psychology was introduced to China in the early 20th century soon, psychology as a scientific discipline was established when the teaching, research, and academic exchanges began. Specifically, applied psychology was established until the last decade of the 20th century; however, the past 30 years have witnessed the fast growth of applied psychology in China. In this article, we briefly introduce the history of psychology in China, its establishment as a discipline and a profession, and present some applications of psychology in the domains of public mental health as well as in educational and organizational settings.

The standard for healthy Chinese older adults (2022).

Healthy older adults refer to the elderly aged 60 and above who can take care of themselves or basically take care of themselves.

Effect of Cognitive Control on Age-Related Positivity Effects in Attentional Processing - Evidence From an Event-Related Brain Potential Study.

Studies investigating age-related positivity effects during facial emotion processing have yielded contradictory results. The present study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms of cognitive control during attentional processing of emotional faces among older adults. We used go/no-go detection tasks combined with event-related potentials and source localization to examine the effects of response inhibition on age-related positivity effects. Data were obtained from 23 older and 23 younger healthy participants. Behavioral results showed that the discriminability index (d') of older adults on fear trials was significantly greater than that of younger adults [t(44)=2.37, p=0.024, Cohen's d=0.70], whereas an opposite pattern was found in happy trials [t(44)=2.56, p=0.014, Cohen's d=0.75]. The electroencephalography results on the amplitude of the N170 at the left electrode positions showed that the fear-neutral face pairs were larger than the happy-neutral ones for the younger adults [t(22)=2.32, p=0.030, Cohen's d=0.48]; the older group's right hemisphere presented similar tendency, although the results were not statistically significant [t(22)=1.97, p=0.061, Cohen's d=0.41]. Further, the brain activity of the two hemispheres in older adults showed asymmetrical decrement. Our study demonstrated that the age-related "positivity effect" was not observed owing to the depletion of available cognitive resources at the early attentional stage. Moreover, bilateral activation of the two hemispheres may be important signals of normal aging.

Comparative Analysis of Psychology Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic in Brics Nations.

The BRICS Forum, an independent international organization encouraging commercial, political, and cultural cooperation between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, was formed in 2011, and these countries have a significant influence on their regional affairs. These nations were hit by COVID-19 at different times, and all adopted home quarantine to reduce the spread of the virus. We present a comparative analysis of actions of psychology and potential outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in BRICS nations regarding five aspects: psychology in health policies, social roles of psychology, socioeconomic context, actions for the general population, and health professionals during stage 1 of the pandemic, and possible actions in stage 2. Various types of actions were taken by psychologists in BRICS, with different levels of coordinated cooperation with respective governmental and non-governmental organizations, multiple and parallel efforts from different scientific societies, and professional regulatory agencies. Scientific societies have had an important role in coordinating some of these efforts, especially because they congregate the psychologists from different parts of these countries, improving communication and access to key information. The aim of these actions varies from improving situational skills and competences to increase the accessibility of psychological services and provide psychoeducation and telepsychology. We will consider the social importance of these actions within these countries as a global opportunity for psychology to stage in a complex context involving human health. The way psychology in BRICS will face this challenging situation is likely to produce important regional influence, stimulate scientific contribution, and increase the accessibility of psychology.

Attitude toward Aging Mediates the Relationship between Personality and Mental Health in Older Adults.

This study aimed to examine attitude toward aging as a potential mediator of the relationship between personality factors and mental health in terms of depression and life satisfaction among older adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 438 Ethiopian elderly individuals aged 60 to 69. The results of the regression-based path analysis showed that after adjusting for demographic data, the relationship between agreeableness and depression in older adults was partially mediated by attitude toward aging. Likewise, attitude toward physical change due to aging and psychological growth subscales jointly mediated the correlation between neuroticism and depression. However, a significant direct path between neuroticism and depression persisted. On the contrary, openness had no significant direct association with depression apart from an indirect through psychosocial loss. The link between life satisfaction and agreeableness as well as openness to experience were partially mediated by psychosocial loss. Therefore, a person's attitude toward aging and personality characteristics should be taken into consideration while designing interventions for managing mental health issues among older adults.

Effect of Cognitive Control on Attentional Processing of Emotional Information Among Older Adults: Evidence From an Eye-Tracking Study.

Background: Although numerous studies have suggested that the gradually increasing selective preference for positive information over negative information in older adults depends on cognitive control processes, few have reported the characteristics of different attention stages in the emotional processing of older individuals. The present study used a real-time eye-tracking technique to disentangle the attentional engagement and disengagement processes involved in age-related positivity effect (PE). Methods: Eye movement data from a spatial-cueing task were obtained for 32 older and 32 younger healthy participants. The spatial-cueing task with varied cognitive loads appeared to be an effective way to explore the role of cognitive control during the attention engagement and disengagement stages of emotion processing. Results: Compared with younger adults, older participants showed more positive gaze preferences when cognitive resources were sufficient for face processing at the attention engagement stage. However, the age-related PE was not observed at the attention disengagement stage because older adults had more difficulty disengaging from fearful faces than did the younger adults due to the consumption of attention by the explicit target judgment. Conclusion: The present study highlights how cognitive control moderates positive gaze preferences at different attention processing stages. These findings may have far-reaching implications for understanding, preventing, and intervening in unsuccessful aging and, thus, in promoting active and healthy aging.

Age-Related Differences in Affective Norms for Chinese Words (AANC).

Information on age-related differences in affective meanings of words is widely used by researchers to study emotions, word recognition, attention, memory, and text-based sentiment analysis. To date, no Chinese affective norms for older adults are available although Chinese as a spoken language has the largest population in the world. This article presents the first large-scale age-related affective norms for 2,061 four-character Chinese words (AANC). Each word in this database has rating values in the four dimensions, namely, valence, arousal, dominance, and familiarity. We found that older adults tended to perceive positive words as more arousing and less controllable and evaluate negative words as less arousing and more controllable than younger adults did. This indicates that the positivity effect is reliable for older adults who show a processing bias toward positive vs. negative words. Our AANC database supplies valuable information for researchers to study how emotional characteristics of words influence the cognitive processes and how this influence evolves with age. This age-related difference study on affective norms not only provides a tool for cognitive science, gerontology, and psychology in experimental studies but also serves as a valuable resource for affective analysis in various natural language processing applications.